SALT LAKE CITY — Michelle Harrison is looking forward to a unique experience this evening.
The 6-foot-3 forward, who transferred to play on Utah's women's basketball team for her senior season, will reunite with her old team when the Lady Utes take on the Stanford Cardinal Friday night at the Huntsman Center at 7 p.m.
Harrison, a graduate of Mountain View High and former MVP and Deseret News Ms. Basketball, headed out west after high school to play for Coach Tara Vanderveer and the notable Stanford women's program, which is currently ranked third in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches' polls. She has since graduated from the Pac-10 school and, due to an
injury, still had a year of eligibility left.
"Utah was my first choice, my last choice, I wanted to be here," Harrison said. "I was going to do whatever I needed to make it happen."
A torn ACL during her sophomore season sidelined Harrison, allowing her to use a medical redshirt. Two years later, Vanderveer pulled Harrison aside to talk to her about space on the roster.
"She sat me down and said with the recruits coming in and the number of people we had that wanted to stay, we were short one scholarship," Harrison said. "There were no hard feelings, but she let me know that the position they really needed were point guards, so she gave me the option of looking and seeing what I wanted to do."
While most athletes who transfer from one Division I school to another Division I school are required to sit out a year, Harrison fit into a category most student-athletes do not.
"Through research (we found) if you can get accepted into a graduate program that isn't offered at the school you're already at and (that school) is not in the same conference, there's an opportunity to be waived for that year and not have to sit out," explained Harrison, who graduated from Stanford last May with a bachelor's degree in studio art.
She was accepted into the University of Utah's Education, Culture and Society master's program, which she could eventually use to teach art and coach basketball at the high school level, and the NCAA cleared her to play.
Now in Utah crimson and white, Harrison made her first career start when the Utes traveled to play SMU in the season-opening victory and her second in a win at Weber State on Tuesday. Tonight's matchup against Stanford will be her first home-opener at the Huntsmen Center, as well as an powerful reunion.
"It's going to be really emotional, but it's going to be a lot of fun," Harrison said. "This is such a unique opportunity for someone to transfer, get to play (immediately), and get to come back and play their old team — and on good terms."
She added that she is especially pleased to have Stanford on the schedule so she can reunite with the friends, and relive some of the memories she made over the past four years.
"It was a really good experience. The injury certainly made it a hard road, but I think through those knocks you learn lessons that aren't learned anywhere else," she said. "And school was challenging, but to walk out with a degree, that's going to open up a lot of opportunities when basketball is all said and done."
As for the game, she expects her current team to hold its own against her old one.
"I know (when I was) at Stanford and we came and played Utah, Utah always played us really well," Harrison said. "I know (interim head coach) Anthony (Levrets) and these girls really want to take this program to another level, and to do that you have to be able to compete against top-5 teams.
"I think it's going to be an interesting matchup. They're really big, they're really athletic — they always are — and with the newcomers they have coming in it mixes things up. But I expect it to be really competitive. We'll all be happy to see each other, I know it's going to be all smiles, but when tipoff comes, we want to play."
The Cardinal, last season's NCAA runner up, is 1-0 after winning its first game of the year, a 63-50 victory over Rutgers. They are led by junior All-American Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who averaged 18.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game last season, and her sister, freshman Chiney Ogwumike, who had a game-high 12 rebounds and nine points against Rutgers.
Ute women on the air
No. 3 Stanford (1-0) at Utah (2-0)
Today, 7 p.m.
Huntsman Center
TV: The mtn.; Radio: 700 AM
e-mail: sthomas@desnews.com